Bowling pin base and pin including same



Feb. 1, 1966 R. M. CONKLIN ETAL 3,232,616

BOWLING PIN BASE AND PIN INCLUDING SAME Filed Aug. 8, 1962 l zzlenz ara ffoberiflfCo 7221074 Fredfl SQZZ/Ld ZZ/ ml. Jlzf; 3x64 I i. Robert M. Conkliu,

United States Patent C) AND PIN INCLUDING SAME Muskegon, and Fred E. Satehell, Grand Haven, Mich., and William L. Jolitz, Oaks, Pa., assignors to Brunswick Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Filed Aug. 8, 1962, Ser. No. 215,719 3 Claims. (Cl. 27382) BOWLING PEN BASE This invention relates to bowling pins and more particularly to a new and improved pin bottom for a bowl ingpin.

At the present time, it is common practice to utilize a pinbottom for a bowling pin made out of a plastic material such as nylon which has high impact resistance. However, in certain constructions thereof, the bottom is capable of easily being broken due to side impacts of the bottom against other pins or the bowling alley kickbacks.

It is the primary purpose of this invention to provide a pin bottom and coacting pin construction which spreads out the forces occurring in such side impacts and provides substantial mass across the points of greatest weakness.

An object of this invention is to provide a new andirnproved bottom for a bowling pin having a longer life due to improved strength thereof resulting from the construction'and association with a bowling pin.

Still another object of the invention is to provide a bowling pin with a pin bottom in which the pin bottom is fitted against the bottom of a pin core with the bottom of the core and the upper surface of the pin bottom interengaging and having an upward and inward slope to provide engaging sloped surfaces generally normal tothe greater proportion of side loads taken by the pin bottom.

Still a further object of the invention is to provide a construction as defined in the preceeding paragraph in which the core is provided with an aperture and the pin bottom has a plug extending into the aperture and interlocked with the bottom of the core to hold the pin bottom and core in assembled relation.

Further objects and advantages will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is an elevational view of the bowling pin with parts thereof broken away to show the construction of the pin; and

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary enlarged vertical section taken through the lower part of the pin.

While this invention is susceptible of embodiment in many diiferent forms, there is shown in the drawings and will herein be described in detail an embodiment of the invention with the understanding that the present disclosure is to be considered as an exemplification of the principles of the invent-ion and is not intended to limit the invention to the embodiment illustrated. The scope of the invention will be pointed out in the appended claims.

The bowling pin is indicated generally at and, as commonly known in the art, has a belly 11 and a head 12 interconnected by a neck 13. The pin has a base area 14 and the bottom of the pin is defined by a pin bottom 15. The pin including the belly 11, head 12, neck 13 and base 14 are all formed of generally the same construction. This construction may be in the form of a body or core of wood with a coating there-over, however, as shown in the drawings, the pin embodies a hollow core 20 of a suitable metal or metal alloy andan enclosing coating 21 of suitable material.

The core 20 has a bottom wall 22 with this wall having an upper face 23 and a lower face 24. The bottom wall has an opening 25 defining a central aperture therethrough for receiving a part of the pin bottom 15.

"3,232,616 Patented Feb. 1, 1966 The pin bottom 15 is formed of a material having high impact resistance such as nylon with the bottom having a lower outer [face 26 and an upper face 27 coextensive with and engaging the lower face 24 of the core bottom -wall. The bottom has a peripheral part 28 extending beyond the core 20 in order to provide a surface against which a terminal part of the coating 21 may abut to prevent any exposed surface edges.

The pin bottom 15 has an upwardly extending plug portion 29 extending upwardly into and beyond the opening 25 in the core bottom wall. An enlarged end defines a flange 30 to interfit with the upper surface 23 of the core bottom wall adjacent the opening 25 and interlock therewith to lock the pin bottom into assembled relation with the core and coating. As shown, the pin bottom has a central aperture 31.

In addition to the high impact resistance of the pin bottom, the bottom material has a sufliciently high yield strength to permit temporary deformation of the plug 29 for insertion of the plug into and through the bottom wall opening 25 by a snap action with the flange 30 then interlocking with the core bottom wall. The pin bottom can be held in associated relation with the core merely by the interlocking without any adhesives. The lack of adhesives provides a better cushioning action due to the non-adhesive holding of the bottom to the remainder of the pin.

When the pin bottom is impacted directly against the bottom thereof and axially of the pin, there are normally no significant problems encountered due to the entire bottom face 24 of the core bottom opposing the force. Also, when the impact is generally against the lower side of the base 14 of the pin with some engagement of the peripheral part of the pin bottom, the load is substantially taken by the core and substantially forces are not exterted against the pin bottom and its mounting to the core. A great number of the side impacts are received from directions falling between the two impact directions just described and can result in substantial shear forces acting across the points of greatest weakness which are in the area including the joining of the plug section 29 of the pin bottom to the remainder thereof. In order to spread out these shear forces, the lower face 24 of the core bottom wall is sloped upwardly toward the central aperture 25 and the upper face 27 of the pin bottom is correspondingly sloped at an angle to lie along a line generally normal to the greater proportion of side loads taken by the pin bottom. From tests, it has been found that a suitable range of slops are angles to the horizontal of the lower face 24 of the bottom wall generally within a range of 15-25 although improved results can be obtained with a wider latitude of angles due to sloping of the lower face 24 providing added surface area for taking up the side impact forces.

Although not limiting the principles of this invention to cores of metal, the problem is more acute when associating the pin bottom 15 with a metal core since the metal core does not have the compressibility of wood.

The upper face 27 of the pin bottom smoothly curvingly blends into the plug section 29 as indicated at 35 which increases the section modulus and contributes to the life of the pin bottom.

We claim:

1. A bowling pin comprising:

(1) a rigid core having va bottom wall with an aperture in the bottom wall; and

(2) a pin base comprising a body member having:

(a) a plug portion,

(b) a peripheral flange portion,

(c) interlock means received by said aperture and locking the base to said core, and

(d) a stress relieving surface sloping upwardly and inwardly from the periphera l'fiange portion and curvingly merging with the plug portion,

said bottom Wall being of a shape mating with. the pin base surface.

2. A bowling pin comprising: (1) a rigid core having a bottom wall with an aperture in the bottom wall; and (2) a .pin base comprising a body member having:

(a) an enlarged peripheral flange portion,

(b) a central plu-g portion,

(0) an enlarged peripheral upper end of said plug portion forming an interlock element snap-fitted through said aperture and remova bly locking the base .to said core, and V (d) a stress relieving surface sloping upwardly an inwardly from the peripheral flange portion and wr e y m n wi the p u P n,

said bottom wall being of a shape mating with the pin base surface. i

3. A bowling pin comprising a hollow metal core having an inwardly dished convexly curved bottom wall with a central aperture therethrongh, a pin base comprising a plastic body member having a peripheral flange port-ion, a plug portion terminatingat an upper end in a snaplock element received through said aperture and merging at a lower end through a stress relieving surface sloping upwardly and inwardly from'the peripheral flange portion and curvingly merging with the plug portion, said snap-lock element removably locking the base to said core, said bottom wall backing the pin base at the surface of said pin base throughout the entire extent thereof.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 781,182 1/1905 Brewington 21552 2,166,950 7/1939 German et a1. 4 273'82 2,517,116 8/1950 Klinger 273-782 2,741,396 4/1956 LObl 215-47 2,746,632 5/1956 Bramming Y 2154-,52

' FOREIGN PATENTS 480,186 1/1952 Canada.

RICHARD C. PINKHAM, Primary Examiner. DELBERT B. LOWE, Examiner. 

1. A BOWLING PIN COMPRISING: (1) A RIGID CORE HAVING A BOTTOM WALL WITH AN APERTURE IN THE BOTTOM WALL; AND (2) A PIN BASE COMPRISING A BODY MEMBER HAVING: (A) A PLUG PORTION, (B) A PERIPHERAL FLANGE PORTION, (C) INTERLOCK MEANS RECEIVED BY SAID APERTURE AND LOCKING THE BASE TO SAID CORE, AND (D) A STRESS RELIEVING SURFACE SLOPING UPWARDLY AND INWARDLY FROM THE PERIPHERAL FLANGE PORTION AND CURVINGLY MERGING WITH THE PLUG PORTION, SAID BOTTOM WALL BEING OF A SHAPE MATING WITH THE PIN BASE SURFACE. 